“I asked her why she kept waking Brenda.”
“What did Grandma say?”
He stared at the carpet.
“She said you and Dad need to understand what your life is going to be like.”
I felt sick.
He kept rubbing one thumb over the dinosaur on his pajama sleeve, refusing to look toward the nursery door again.
“Anything else?”
“She said I was too little to understand. Then she told me not to upset you because you were already tired.”
He kept rubbing one thumb over the dinosaur on his pajama sleeve, refusing to look toward the nursery door again.
Then I understood what he’d meant about falling asleep.
The first night Ben tried to guard Brenda, Diane saw him awake beneath the crib and left.
So every night after that, he came back and tried to stay awake.
Another night, he tried again.
He fell asleep.
When he woke, Diane was already carrying Brenda toward our bedroom.
